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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30035601">Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/nahago_nolja/pseuds/nahago_nolja'>nahago_nolja</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>GolCha Oneshot Collection [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Golden Child (Korea Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, Friendship, Gen, No Romance, Travel, just a group of friends travelling together, no beta we die like men, the others appear for like five seconds at the end</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 00:41:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,654</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30035601</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/nahago_nolja/pseuds/nahago_nolja</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's not your fault" Jaehyun said with a soft voice, even if it still managed to startle Joochan.<br/>"... What?"<br/>"It's not your fault" the other gently repeated. "You may have made those choices, but we are the ones who didn't oppose to them. If you are at fault, then so are we."<br/>Joochan stared at Jaehyun for a while. His friend wasn't much of a talker outside their group and only let himself be more open when they were all together (and, this pleased Joochan, even more when he was with the three of them); he was also a person who always found something nice or encouraging to say.<br/>Jaehyun's soft gaze and kind smile were almost too much for Joochan, who fought hard to stop himself from crying. He took a deep breath and tried to give a convincing smile.<br/>"Thank you" he said. The other simply smiled wider.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>GolCha Oneshot Collection [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2156172</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><b>DISCLAIMER</b>: <span class="u">I don't own GolCha or any of the members. I only own the plot and the writing that made this story up</span>.</p><p>So... I had plans for this story. It even had a completely different title and I expected it to be more of a comedy / humor piece.<br/>And then this happened. It's not sad, don't worry! It just took a completely unexpected turn.<br/>This is a non-idol AU, the guys are just students and GolCha is just their main group of friends.</p><p>"Dialogue"<br/>'<em>Thoughts</em>'</p><p>Enjoy~❤</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"We're lost."</p><p>"We are not lost. We're just not where we are supposed to be."</p><p>
  <span>"Call it whatever you want. To </span>
  <span>
    <em>me</em>
  </span>
  <span>, that sounds like the definition of 'lost'."</span>
</p><p>"Well, I call it 'wandering'. You can't be lost when you wander."</p><p>"Yeah, you can."</p><p>
  <span>"No. No, you can't. Because the definition of 'wandering' is</span>
  <span>‒</span>
  <span>"</span>
</p><p>"Can we stop trying to figure out the meaning of words and focus on where exactly we ended up?" Jibeom said, interrupting Joochan who was, once again, quarelling with Donghyun. He was developing the beginnings of a headache and he wanted some peace and quiet. And figure out where the hell they where.</p><p> </p><p>Joochan let out a displeased "humph" before he focused again on the map in front of them. He tried to keep a neutral expression, even if he had started to feel guilty. When they had decided to do this trip, a sort of traditional "coming of age" experience for the members of their group of friends, the four of them all pitched in regarding their respective ideas and roles they'd take. Most of the planning had been left to Donghyun (he was a person who needed a precise schedule when doing things, which had been considered a good point in letting him be the one in charge of decisions regarding how their trip was gonna be) with a few inputs from Jibeom.</p><p> </p><p>Joochan... wasn't like that.</p><p>He needed a schedule too or he'd never study properly in his life, but he was very much an "improvise on the spot" kind of guy (and that explained why he got on with Jangjun-hyung like a house on fire). Which is why, two days into their backpacking trip across the country, Joochan said "oh, there's a natural reserve here, let's check it out!", followed the day after by "I heard the hot springs in the next town are mind blowing, we can't miss them" and two days ago's suggestion of "hey, look at those flower fields! Let's go pick some of them and hope we don't get chased out".</p><p> </p><p>All of this led to their current situation: instead of taking the planned route, Joochan's "wandering" led them in what seemed to be the complete opposite direction of where they expected to go. And because they had travelled by the seaside and across fields for almost two days with barely any sign on the roads, they now had no idea where the hell they ended up. After two hours of trying to figure it out, Donghyun had snapped at him, which started their latest quarrel, interrupted only by Jibeom's exahusted voice.</p><p> </p><p>So here Joochan was, trying to concentrate on the map, turning himself around to see if he could spot some specific landmark that he could compare and resolutely avoiding the nagging voice in his head yelling at him how he fucked up his friends' trip.</p><p> </p><p>"It's not your fault" Jaehyun said with a soft voice, even if it still managed to startle Joochan.</p><p>"... What?"</p><p>"It's not your fault" the other gently repeated. "You may have made those choices, but we are the ones who didn't oppose to them. If you are at fault, then so are we."</p><p>Joochan stared at Jaehyun for a while. His friend wasn't much of a talker outside their group and only let himself be more open when they were all together (and, this pleased Joochan, even more when he was with the three of them); he was also a person who always found something nice or encouraging to say.</p><p>Jaehyun's soft gaze and kind smile were almost too much for Joochan, who fought hard to stop himself from crying. He took a deep breath and tried to give a convincing smile.</p><p>"Thank you" he said. The other simply smiled wider.</p><p> </p><p>Joochan took a quick look at the map again before deciding to check his surroundings throughly.</p><p>"I think we should go there" he said after a few minutes. The others, who had sat down to wait, even if they had tried to look around as well, turned towards where Joochan was pointing.</p><p>
  <span>"There should be a beach over there. I think we should just stick to walk along the coast: sooner or later we're gonna </span>
  <span>
    <em>have</em>
  </span>
  <span> to </span>
  <span>
    <em>see</em>
  </span>
  <span> something, like a house, a town or whatever else."</span>
</p><p>His friends stood up, trying to see if they could already notice the beach from there.</p><p>"Not a bad idea" Jibeom said, nodding thoughtfully. "This way we can also avoid wild animals, in case there are some in the area."</p><p>Those words made all of them surreptitiously check around, but there was nothing they could see, except a few butterflies and some cute little birds. But there was a small forest not too far from them: who knew what could hide in there.</p><p>"Best idea I've heard in a while. Okay, let's go!" Jaehyun said and they all started to walk towards the beach.</p><p> </p><p>Joochan stood back a bit, walking next and slightly behind Donghyun, who hadn't said a word in a while.</p><p>"Sorry" he said, voice soft and apologetic.</p><p>His best friend turned to look at him, face completely blank before he sighed and shook his head.</p><p>"Jaehyun is right: it's not your fault. Or rather, not just yours" Donghyun said. "We could have said something if we were so against it."</p><p>
  <span>"But you did!" Joochan exclaimed, making the other two in front of them turn around to check if everything was alright and then kept walking when Joochan just shook his head. "You did" he continued, lowering the volume of his voice. "All of you." '</span>
  <span>
    <em>Especially you...</em>
  </span>
  <span>'</span>
</p><p>"Because it messed with our plans" Donghyun replied. "But this way we saw things we would have missed otherwise and if we were fully against any changes, we would have been more resolute with our complaints. It had happened in other situations, remember? So... it's okay."</p><p>They walked in silence for a while, feeling the tense atmosphere that had been between them for the past couple of days finally ease up.</p><p> </p><p>"Guys, look!" Jibeom exclaimed, making them all stop in their tracks to see where he was pointing.</p><p>Not far from them the terrain turned into a slope which led directly to the beach.</p><p>Flowers of every color, shape and size grew scattered all across the slope, the soft sand of the beach stretched for a while before merging with the sea which, at that time of the day, reflected a mix of blues. The Sun on their back, only a few hours from setting, bathed the whole place in a warm light. Overall the sight was simply amazing.</p><p>"Wow..." Joochan heard Donghyun whisper and he couldn't help but nod.</p><p>Something seemed to have settled in their hearts and they took their time to reach the shoreline, looking around and taking as many pictures as they could.</p><p> </p><p>Once they reached the sand and stood close to the water, they stopped and simpy... stared at the sea in front of them.</p><p>Nobody said a word for a while, content to just live in the moment.</p><p>"We should settle down our tents here" Donghyun said after a while. "It's gonna get dark in a couple of hours, there's no point moving on now."</p><p>The other three nodded and walked back closer to the slope to set up camp.</p><p>Dinner was a quiet affair, but there was no trace of the tension that had surrounded their little group in the past couple of days. Jaehyun had even managed to catch a few fishes.</p><p>They sat around the fire and when the night sky started to be filled with lights, they decided to just lay down and stargaze for a while.</p><p> </p><p>"This is nice" Jibeom said after a few minutes. The air was warm and any sensation of cold was kept away by the fire.</p><p>"We should do this again. I mean!" Joochan said before the others could even think about complaining "Maybe not like we did this time, but... We could wander around a bit instead of... Just having a fixed route... We could simply... Live the moment. Like we are doing now."</p><p>"... I'd like that" Jaehyun said after a few seconds while Jibeom nodded, making Joochan relax after having voiced his suggestion.</p><p>He turned towards Donghyun who hadn't spoke for a while. His best friend noticed and gave him a small smile.</p><p>"Why not? Besides, not all those who wander are lost, right?" Donghyun said, making Joochan grin widely.</p><p> </p><p>So maybe their trip wasn't like they had planned and imagined, but they all felt that what they were experiencing was just much better.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>"At least you didn't almost get arrested" Daeyeol commented once they got back, eyeing Jangjun and Sungyoon as he said that. The former just gasped in mock offence, half laying on top of Jibeom and complaining about the lies being spread about him, while the latter simply rolled his eyes.</p><p>"You are blowing things out of proportion, nothing of the sort happened, you know that" Sungyoon commented, snatching some of Daeyeol's fries as revenge.The oldest just gave him an unimpressed look.</p><p>The 99-liners barely paid attention. No matter the difficult experiences they just had to deal with, they couldn't wait until they had some free time again so they could go back and wander down the road of life.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Bomin was the one who blew off all the expectations.</p><p>Their youngest came back with a list of over 30 bars and shops he had been kicked out off and wasn't allowed to visit anymore.</p><p>
  <span>The fact that he had already planned to go with </span>
  <span>
    <em>Jangjun</em>
  </span>
  <span> on his next trip was too much for Daeyeol, who fainted at the news.</span>
</p><p>"What's my decision of a little wandering in the face of that?" Joochan couldn't help but smugly ask.</p><p>(Despite changing his view on the subject, Donghyun felt completely justified when he smacked the other's face with a pillow.)</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for checking out my story! </p><p>Come and chat with me on <a href="https://twitter.com/nahago_nolja/">Twitter</a></p><p>Positive reviews are welcome.<br/>Constructive criticism is appreciated.<br/>Needless hate can be left outside the door.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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